post-it note, Foucault

“It is often said that we have been incapable of imagining any new pleasures. We have at least invented a different kind of pleasure: pleasure in the truth of pleasure, the pleasure of knowing that truth, of discovering and exposing it, the fascination of seeing it and telling it, of captivating and capturing others by it, of confiding in it in secret, of luring it out in the open – the specific pleasure of the true discourse on pleasure.” – Foucault (105-6)

This is such a true statement amongst my peers. It seems that there are some people who always have to be right. And in the post-modern era, it seems like no one can be right all the time. The facts of history have all been rewritten by incapable or unaccredited “scholars of the internet” or “scholars of the immediate communication networks of the 21st century.” Those who know first are considered cool and with it. Those who know but don’t tell are empowered. But the things that are “known” are as important as the “facts” that are not due to the immediacy of communication. If anything can be kept a secret from anyone anymore, it is considered a miracle. To make your power of holding a secret known, that secret must be told. It is in this way that my peers and I are being conditioned to the normalization of surveillance. The term facebook stalking is used to describe the researching of people without their knowledge. It is a little weird, although the information available to the world is posted by the person himself or herself. Their choice is for anyone they consider a friend to know the things that are on their profile. Secrets are no more. Private life is no more. But how this is making life safer is still something that we all need to consider. If everyone can know everything about anyone, identities are placed in the wrong hands and secrets are used against people. Not cool. Let’s all go back to the time when we did not know of this pleasure of knowing and telling. Lets go back to the simple pleasures.